Rob Lowe

Seeking an antidote to the holiday season's traditional tidings of great joy? Director Takeshi Kitano (1997's Fireworks) returns this week at the Lumiere Theatre with Outrage, a bloody, deliriously eccentric gangland drama about rival yakuza clans competing for the favor of their head family in the Japanese underworld. Elsewhere:1. Noir City XmasWhere:Castro Theatre, 429 Castro St., 415-621-6120When: Dec. 14

The wait is over. After a brief, regrettable hiatus, the Indie Theater Roundup is back, locked and loaded for a long summer, ready with the antidote to the foppish banality of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and the calculated naughtiness of The Hangover Part II. So, without further ado:1. A Place in the SunWhere:Castro Theatre, 429 Castro St., 415-621-6120When: May 28